Tuesday, August 01, 2006 | 3:31 PM

This was supposed to be published a week ago. The internet at the hostel just sucks. Read on if you wish to.

If you do not know that I’m in Sydney, you are really slow.
Been in Sydney for more than a week now, helping my sis to settle down and get all the stuff, and doing shopping in the meantime too.
It’s winter now in Sydney. It should average 20 degrees, but it’s really cold since it has been raining almost everyday. Averages 10 degrees when it rains.

Sydney is rather different from Melbourne. Sydney is flooded with Asians. Trust me when I say flooded. There are a lot of Chinese (China Chinese), and quite a number of Japanese, Koreans, HongKongers etc.

And the transport system here is really complex. Find it rather tiring to figure the transport system out and we keep losing our way here. We often lose our way in the station itself even. And did you hear me say that I lost my way in Melbourne?

People here are more business-oriented and the pace here is almost like Singapore. Perhaps what’s most consoling here is that the shops close at 5 or 6, unlike Melbourne which closes at 4 or 5, and there is late night shopping here on Thursday when shops close at 8 or 9.

Sydney is rather unsafe, I would feel. Drugs are rampant here. Chanced upon a small group of men taking drugs in the park as early as 9pm, and guess what? I didn’t dare to walk past the park. The sun sets early, so it gets pitch dark by 6pm.

The fashion here is slower then Melbourne I guess. Discounted stuff that I bought in Melbourne 3 months ago could still be found discounting here. And the fashion here is louder than Melbourne. Probably more suitable for me, but Melbourne has more nicer accessories. Melbourne’s stuff are basically more “di1 diao4 de4 hua2 li4” (ie low-profile glam) versus those in Sydney which are much more louder. Could hardly find short skirts being sold in Melbourne in autumn, but there are still visible here in Sydney though it’s winter now. There are more international brands here as well. Although I have not shopped a lot, I have actually bought a hell lot of stuff. Beginning to worry about how I am going to get them back. Not to mention more shopping to come when Jeanne arrives.